Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1887-06-29
CORRESPONDENCE,
Ine Heat In Paris-To Strasburg-
Champagne-Nancy- Sights in
Strasburg-The Cathedral.
STP hcpJTpr lima IN

inatter OF fashlon, but matter OF comfort,
to get out of it. The stone of which Paris
houses is built heats rapidly and seems not
only to contain, but to manufacture heat
After one or two not days Paris is ablaze
The higher up you in hotel the moro
heat rises after you. An quatrieme is intol-
cradle, while the same moment out in the
middle of the garden of the Tuileries one
may be having very cool time of it.
To get out of Paris and into Germany or
Switzerland a long and disagreeable journey
has to be taken. It is shorter to the Belgi-
um frontier, but no one wants to go to Bel
gium just now except he be booked for Nor
way and Sweden. From Paris to Cologne
takes about twelve hours, and the way is
rather interesting and diversified. To
Frankfort is about fifteen hours, to Stras-
bourg about ten, to Basle about twelve and
to Geneva about sixteen. Until you ap
proaoh the various frontiers all the railroads
traverse the comparatively fat plains of east
ern France. The roads are not bedded in
stone and are very dusty. The tracks are
not well laid and you are bounced about un-
comfortably. Moreover French car spring
is a tough and yielding contrivance- If you
select Strasburg as your outlet your ticket
will cost you sixty-one francs. If you in
dulge in seat in a coupe your seat to the
frontier will cost you sixteen francs more;
and if you have but a reasonable amount of
luggage you will have to pay about five
francs extra. That is eighty-two francs
nearly sixteen dollars and half for journey
ing about as far as from New York to Buffa-
10. You can't go second class unless you
take train which consumes twenty hours in
the journey. Still you try to make the best
of it, The first stop is at Epernay. There
the commissariat receives attention. You
don't eat on the spot, but take your purchas-
es with you to shorten the time to the next
station. A bottle of champagne of course.
Three francs and delicious. Better you
VOW than anything you have been paying
from twelve to sixteen francs for at the Paris
restaurants-very mild, very delicate-and
with the exquisite taste of the true cham
pagne grape. How tremendous the swindling
that must be done, and how much more sue
cessfully must it be done in Paris than in
New York for instance; for in a Paris restau-
rant where there are none of the burdens of
our tax the prices are but very little less. l
am told that the prices for Paris, other i'm.
portant points, and for expectation are con-
trolled by syndicate of the largest and
Wealthiest proprietors and manufacturers.
The small proprietors may sell at home and
about in the country, but if they attempt to
establish Paris market they will be crushed
or forced to join the combination on such
terms as the Pommerys, the Cliquots, the
Nuns, the Roederers, &C., may dictate. The
wine manufactured by the small proprietors
is infinitely better because it is pure. That
manufactured by the large proprietors is in
my opinion cheap German wine with very
small proportion of champagne wine skill
fully mixed in.
One might live a month at Epernay and
not find facts sufficient upon which to base
an affidavit, but moral conviction will follow
a very superficial examination, especially if
assisted by the figures of imports and exs
ports. Next to Bordeaux the Champagne
district is the largest recipient of foreign
wines and spirits. For the manufacture of
bogus ehampagnes the cheap Rhine wines are
the most advantageous. They are very light
in body and in color, very, very cheap, and
lastly take and persistently hold any artlh-
cia1 color and flavor impaired. AS twenty
odd years ago was attorney in number of
actions in which large mandatory of
champagne, situated not far from st. Paul's
church in New York, was concerned, I
know something about the business. The
chap in question imported Rhine wine at a
cost of from twelve shillings to two dollars a
gallon. By the aid of essences and carbonio-
acid gas he turned it into the leading brands
of the day. He sold his stuff to the leading
restaurants at S12 dozen and they re-
sold it to their pleased and happy customers
at three dollars bottle. AS experts testi-
fed that there was nothing injurious in the
product, under the laws as they then existed
the factory could not be closed So much
| for Epernay.
had his show military camp, and where his
troops received one of their unnumbered
Prussian drubbings in 1870. Then comes
| Toul and then Nancy. How often has one
thought: 81 ought to stop once and see
Nancy" but you don't, and as you go
| through it New Haven air comes floating to
| your memory. How was it? "All my fan
| cy ---." I can't remember. Ask Hin
| kle. All about Nancy are long drawn out
| rows and rows of new barracks. If hne
barracks made fine soldiers France would be
| to-day the strongest military power in Chris
| tendon.
| And now we are near the frontier and are
| about plunging into the Vosges Mountains
| There are two ayricourts, one French, the
| other German. AS you leave the first yor
| keep sharp lookout for the boundary line
| You expect to see it plain as on map, with
French and German troops lined up on eact
side of it, facing and bunting one another al
| Yale and Princeton at football match. Bu
| with all our straining eyes we saw nothing
not even post And in second there W.
| were: 'A1les aussteigen! Gepack sisitirt!'
After being in Paris a month readin
| French newspapers one expects to hnd Stras
burg a combination of tomb and prison
Female inhabitants going about in semi
mourning, with long faces and downcas
eyes; male inhabitants being arrested at eve
ry corner and marched off to prison will
| pinioned elbows and changing chains. Shop.
shut up; streets alive with spies armed with
magnifying ear trumpets to catch the hrs
unborn whisper of "Vive Ia France!" No
bit of it. On the contrary, every visible
| 6 md StrAAf
filled with good looking men, women ant
children going about their business in an or
| derly and contented manner. Lots of pretty
girls for the soldiers to fiirt with and lots o
soldiers improving the occasion; hrst-rat
| shops; frst-rate hotel; beer gardens filled
in fact everything to make life appear yer.
differently from the French picture of it
We were driven about in the afternoon by
coachman who was French to the marrow o
his backbone, and who ehaffed every soldie
he met. But they paid no attention excep
Lanterne," "L' Intransigeant" or "L Cri d.
Peuple" he should have been shot at ever.
corner What capital name for Frencl
paper, s'le Cri du Peuple'-the peoples cry
And nobody knows or cares what they ar
crying about. The fact that they sit dow
and cry at one another is enough. Let then
up and work and conquer. respect if possible
And Rochefort's paper, "L'Intransigeantl
What does he mean by such titles Trans
lated into English it would mean "The mai
who does not bulge" To judge from tn
character of the paper it apparently mean
that Rochefort and his handful of follower
propoee blocking everything that anybod.
proposes to do for the good of France; anl
that nothing shall be done until they be rec
egnized as supreme, and all power be put a
their feet What comfort to be out of
country where you feel that any moment the
entire fabric of government may tumble t.
pieces about your ears, with no great i'm
probability of cropping your ears off in it
fall.
The eathedrsls of Cologne and Strasbure
are the two grandest cathedral churches o.
Germany, if not of all Europe, though
there are others which surpass them il
architectural interest and many which Offer
superior beauty of proportion or detail
There is a sentence that might well be
added to Baedeker's next guide book, il
which by the by he does not tell when the
building of Strasburg was commenced, but
does state that Cologne was commenced IN